ABC COMPANY



NWX-DEPT OF COMMERCE

Moderator: Theresa Gordon

February 25, 2016

12:30 pm CT

Coordinator: Welcome and thank you for standing by. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode. During the question-and-answer session please press star 1.

Today’s conference is being recorded. If you have any objections you may disconnect at this time. Now I’d like to turn the meeting over to Theresa Gordon. Thank you. You may begin.

Theresa Gordon: Thank you. Good afternoon everyone. This is Theresa Gordon the Trade Ombudsman at the US Census Bureau and the International Trade Management Division. On the line also I have Gene Mesley. He’s the lead architect for the Refractor AS Direct Project. He’s working at CBP on the development of this project and we do have several other members of CBP on the line.

This will be a follow up to last week’s meeting regarding the test environment and the Web link in both EDI migration. Overall this has - the topic won’t cover the portal transition, the beginning of the phase out next week or any of the other methods of communication that will solely be about the Web link migration and using the test environment to test for both EDI shipments and Web link shipments.

I’ll turn it over to Gene Mesley. He’ll briefly review the presentation that he gave last week and then we’ll open up the line for questions to maximize our time. Keep in mind this is Web link and bulk EDI and the test region only. Thank you. Gene it’s all yours.

Gene Mesley: Thank you Theresa. Good afternoon everyone. Again this is Gene Mesley (unintelligible) on the EDI side. I just wanted to take a moment to just go through the high level process for the Web link and in the bulk upload and I’ll open up for questions.

The Web link process is similar to the old Web link process. The main change is the URL (unintelligible) and then the user needs to be logged into the website before they can start submitting the link filing. As said in this slide we don’t support content scraping because the new system uses (unintelligible) so it’s mainly for user interactions. You’ll be able to submit a form, hit populate all the data fields and then the user can complete that transition by submission by clicking on the submit file link.

They get the feedback and then they’ll be able to click on the link to go back to that trade site so that kind of walks through the process from that. Next slide which is actually the user has to be logged into the AES portal. That involves a few steps and then that’s actually entered in slight letters. I’ll just cover them. And then once they’ve logged in they can navigate to the portal website and then they can log in to both systems and then now they’re able to submit it using (unintelligible) or the form labels used in the old system still remains. Some of them aren’t invalid or not used anymore but many fields that are still applicable that just applies.

When we submit - when we accept the form field and then the user can review them and then they can submit it. It’s submitted in AES and then they immediately get the feedback and then they’ll have an option to go back to the trade site. In that case if you pass in a (unintelligible) you’re allowed a (unintelligible) no SED URL. It’ll redirect the user back to that URL. The next slide please.

This just walks through the AES portal login which is just - you enter your credentials there, select your account and then once you select your account on the next slide you’ll see various options. You select the exporter in there and once you select the exporter you see all the list of exporter accounts you have. You click on the account you want to be using in. Select that.

You’ll see an option of that account tab on the left hand side. It’ll say submit AES direct filing so you click on that one. You’ll get into the production site where you will see the screen. At that point to log into the training environment you copy the URL in that browser to that same browser that’s listed on step 6. At that point you’ll be taken into the training site.

When you log into the training site you’ll know you’re on the training site. It has that orange banner in there and also you can look at the URL that’ll have that slash da/crt in there. So that’s your confirmation. At this point you’re on that training site and you could use the URL listed there to submit your post filing. So if you’re programming you would - for your test environment you want to program to post it to the URL listed on the bottom of step 7.

For production you’d use the production URL that was in slide 1. From your programming perspective that should be the only difference between your production environment and then the test environment. So I think on the next slide - once the user clicks on and submitted the form data you’re using - you’ll see the same UI the user would’ve seen if they entered all the data and you could instruct your users to validate all the data and make sure everything is populated and then they can click on submit filing.

At that point they’ll get a pop-up with a confirmation if it’s accepted by AES or rejected. If it’s rejected though they can actually view that on the slide and then find out what the errors are and then fix them. If it’s accepted they can also go back - click on the site on the URL to go back to your application and continue the flow in your application.

That is the flow for the submission and then just like any other submission that happens through the site, you’ll get a response back in an email on whether it’s accepted or rejected. If it’s - if there’s any validation errors with a fatal verification or (unintelligible) alerts you’ll see them in the URL and you could tell which system is sending this email by looking at the from address. The from address from the test system will say donotreplytest@cbp. and then the production will say donotreply@cbp.. Then those emails aren’t - no one is listening to those emails so don’t send any emails to that and expect any response.

If you have any questions email the contact that’s actually listed in the email also. We try to keep the email environment pretty much the same as the production so that way if you’re programming you could - you don’t have to make any changes from switching over from test to production.

I think on the next slide we talked about the backup load process. Again logging into the system is pretty much the same as you’d log into the Web link. If you want to go into the training you still log in the production first, type in the URL to get into the training environment. And then once you’re in the training environment or in production so depending on whether you’re trying to do testing or to do a real submission you can use that bulk filing manager which is under that tools menu.

You click on that and then you’ll be able to see an option to say create bulk filing and you click on that. That actually creates a pop-up where it just brings up which file - which account you want to use and you have a place to put it in an email address. You can select a file and then this file can be a regular SJF file or an external file and then you can put an optional comment if you want and then hit upload.

At that point it will pause it and will create a shipment for a filing for every shipment in that file. And then the response is similar to if you have submitted from the UI. You’ll get an email confirmation for each shipment on that file. If you had more than filing and you want to submit you can still submit it that way. You can have an EDI software which is generating either an SJF file or an external file you can submit it this way.

The validations on these systems, the UI or through the backup load are more strict. It actually follows the same SJF specifications that’s actually published in the CBP website for EDI filers. It follows the same rules so if you’re migrating from the old system to the new system you might see some extra errors but if you have any questions on those errors (unintelligible) the SJF documentation specifies what the root cause was and then what that solution is. I think that’s all I have so I would at this point open up for any questions.

Coordinator: Thank you. We’ll now begin the question-and-answer session. If you’d like to ask a question, please press star 1. You’ll be prompted to record your name. To withdraw your request, please press star 2, one moment please while we wait for the first question or comment. (Heath) your line is now open.

(Heath): Hello my name is (Heath) and we’re working on the bulk upload. My programmers are coming back to me and they’re having a bit difficult time finding any documentation on the structure of the file we need to upload.

Gene Mesley: Okay.

(Heath): Do you have that file structure or location where we can download that information? We have a cutoff date coming up soon and it’s going to take some time for us to get our program to shore this up.

Gene Mesley: Okay. If you go to the website and then search for AESTIR -- A-E-S-T-I-R -- then that’s where all the specifications are available. You can choose the view. Look at the commodities message file formats. You’ll see the specifications for each of the file.

(Heath): I’ve been on the website numerous times and so has a couple other IT guys I have here. We’re not finding what we’re looking for. Can I get a point of contact of somebody to either email me that documentation or talk to me offline because I don’t want to take up the rest of these people’s time to show me where this information is? I’ve combed through your site numerous times.

Theresa Gordon: You can send it directly to me, Theresa, T-H-E-R-E-S-A dot L dot Gordon, G-O-R-D-O-N@ . If you send the email to me then I can point you to where the Aestir files are.

(Heath): Are there examples in there as well?

Theresa Gordon: Is there Gene?

Gene Mesley: There’s no example yet. We can - I can email Theresa you an example file. I think we might be - we’re actually in the process of publishing an example file but an example file isn’t there yet. We can send you one.

(Heath): Okay that’d be great. When do you think the example file will be public?

Gene Mesley: Soon. I don’t have a date for that but then I think it - we plan to put that in the census website on the FAQ section in the transition area. Watch for that in that area.

(Heath): Okay. Give me one second. Theresa I just want to confirm that I’ve got your email address. I just sent you an email. Can you please confirm that you have it?

Theresa Gordon: I actually have the webinar up on my screen. I can’t.

(Heath): No worries. It didn’t work. You see my email address in the webinar, right Theresa?

Theresa Gordon: Okay. Yes. If you send it she said she can pull it up.

(Heath): Can you follow up with me because the email address you gave me, I didn’t type it in correctly obviously. If you can send me that documentation, that’d be great.

Theresa Gordon: No problem.

(Heath): Just put me back in queue. I think I have another question but I need to talk to my programmer first.

Coordinator: Our next question comes from (John Bognan). Your line is open.

(John Bognan): Yes good afternoon. My name is John. I’m with ArcBest Technologies and we file using Web link. I have been able to submit or post to the training site and I see that it populates most all the fields. It looks like the edits are a little bit tighter in AES than they were in the Legacy system but that shouldn’t be a problem.

There’s a couple problems. One is probably a user error. I’m going to have to talk with my users on that but the problem that I’m looking at right now is one of the reasons why it says my submission is invalid is that I have a port of export from Jacksonville, Florida and a port on (unintelligible) of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

My origins state this is Massachusetts and the fatal error that it says under that is fatal 111 State of Origin must be PR. The state of origin really is - should be in the continental United States so I was a little confused about this error unless I’m misunderstanding something. In other words I’m trying to go from continental United States to Puerto Rico because my port of export being Jacksonville.

Gene Mesley: Okay. The - in the training area the differentiator should be similar to what’s in the production if there was a specific port for which these rules are fired based on what’s the differentiator. We’ll definitely look into it if you can send to the filer ID or your shipment reference number. We can take a look at it but then generally the errors are on the new system.

The rules haven’t changed. It’s actually coming through the new system that we built here on the UIR, the old system. The AES, you’re using the same (unintelligible) as the AES, the CBP system. If a port and the state combination was valid in the old system it’ll still be valid. If it’s invalid it’ll still be invalid. The training sites primary purpose is to for you to be able to submit the data and then you can see the end to end communication back and forth.

Again there might be some reference data that might be not up to date in production and then I think I pointed out last time also some of the transactional data such as license number and those type things will not be in the same as production because those are specific production data. The port data should be the same. We can double check that.

(John Bognan): Sure I understand. What I’d like to do if it’s possible is I’ll just send you a screen print. I’ll show the port of export in the origin state. The port of export is in Florida. I’d have to say that the origin state would have to be somewhere, not Puerto Rico, which is the way I interpreted this but I’ll send you a screen print of that.

Gene Mesley: Okay thanks.

(John Bognan): Okay thank you very much.

Coordinator: (Unintelligible) your line is now open.

Woman: Yes thank you. My current biggest problem is I submit two test environments, my shipment, and it gives me a commodity code error that I need a license type but I don’t. I’m a C33. It’s a bicycle, it’s simple. All I have to do in the test environment is edit that commodity line and save it and then it accepts it. What is wrong? How in the world am I submitting that wrongly to get this result?

Gene Mesley: So when you submit something in the Web link you submit some of the data especially on the commodity line code. That actually derived based on some AES rules which could be if you submit something which is - the validation that you’re performing, it’s not for the validation you get - eventually you get an error. The virtue is if you’re going into the screen you might be actually - the (unintelligible) that field for example if you put in - if you select a SGS code for which the unit of measure that you selected isn’t correct it will say that’s an error because that’s not correct at that time but then by the time you get to the screen (unintelligible) is actually if you’re creating it. It’s actually viewed as derived as soon as you select a SGS code (unintelligible) and if there’s was only one UM valid on them you pre-populate it again.

Basically we in that way by virtue if you’re going into the screen you might be auto-correcting that. We might - the system might be auto-correcting it so that might be happening. That might be one reason why it could explain what you’re seeing but if you’re sure you’re sending the right value and the VRS saying that error we can definitely look at it if you have - if that process is happening again and again verified this isn’t the case and then if that’s the case you can adjust your data otherwise you can let us know and I’ll log an effect in and kicks that.

Woman: Okay. When you say let you know am I going to call the phone number and get the data control people to help me with the test environment with my data?

Man: Hey Theresa that’s something you’d want them to send you, right? Then you can shoot that over to (Manny) and his team.

Theresa Gordon: In the issue yes.

Man: Okay.

Theresa Gordon: They can be sent to - you can just send them directly to me.

Woman: That’d be good Theresa because I can’t tell you how many people have been so frustrated with the . It’s a black hole. I sent an email a week ago. All I wanted was the sample shipment. I never got a response. I don’t know anyone who’s gotten a response from that email.

Theresa Gordon: I know we have a lot of people on it. We check the messages regularly as follow up. We do have coverage but if yours fell through the cracks we’re sorry. You can send me the email T-H-E-R-E-S-A dot L - you have it already?

Woman: Gordon. Yes I took that when you gave it to the other guy.

Theresa Gordon: Okay so just send this -

Woman: I hesitated to call you because I know you’re extremely busy. I’d really rather go through channels but it’s getting to be crunch time.

Theresa Gordon: I understand.

Woman: Okay. The other question I have has to do with there’s a new data item on the Web link (unintelligible) document that (Gail) put out that’s not in the current API. It’s called FP. It’s the SC1 AEI filing type. I don’t find any information on that.

Gene Mesley: That’s the new option for advance export information. That’s actually in the Aestir. It’s a way for users to submit some minimal data and then I think there’s a pre-approval process for certain filers if they have pre-approved to submit limited data upfront and then send the rest of the data post-departure.

Woman: Where do I find that link?

Gene Mesley: The description and the information about that, the field itself is also in the SG documentation but then the census website has information about that program itself. Theresa, do you remember the URL that talks about the AEI?

Theresa Gordon: I don’t have it offhand but I can - when you send me the email then I can respond back with it.

Gene Mesley: Sure.

Woman: Thank you. Also there are usage notes in the Aestir that explains what the AEI program is once required. (Unintelligible)? Usage notes in the Aestir. There’s a section -

Woman: (Unintelligible)? Okay.

Theresa Gordon: Yes. It’s in there also.

Woman: Okay I’ll look at that. Thank you. I’ll send you an email asking for the press file. That’s it. That’s all my questions for now. Thank you.

Theresa Gordon: Thank you.

Coordinator: (Heather) your line is now open.

(Heather): Hello. It’s something I heard you say today that’s new which is on failure that can make the corrections directly there. I know that the process is changing bit but now the submission - the actual submission is going to happen in the AES platform. I’m curious. I know a lot of our customers like having their data in our system up to date so I think the preference is going to be the current process which is to update our system and then resubmit. Will that be a possibility to do that where they can say never mind and then go back and correct things in our system if there are differences?

Gene Mesley: Well they - that option is available to the user. We don’t do anything to prevent them to say hey, this was - I’ve come to a blank zone corrected. If your users are educated to correct it only on your system they can definitely do that.

(Heather): Correct it and then re-submit, okay. I wanted to make sure because I know the last that when we get to this process change and then the second one just has to do with the test environment and its availability post April. Is that something that’s going to remain out there? I know we were looking to add some additional edits on the ITAR site door system that aren’t as necessarily as clean as I want them to be so the ability to do that a little bit later down the line, I want to make sure that’s still available.

Gene Mesley: Yes. Our plan is to keep that environment.

(Heather): Okay, that’s all I had. Thank you.

Coordinator: (Myra) your line is now open.

(Myra): Hello Gene, this is (Myra) with Lockheed Martin. I wanted to ask you how long is the training site up for. Will it always be available to us?

Gene Mesley: The training environment is going to be available. We don’t have any plans to take it down in the near future.

(Myra): Okay that sounds really good. And the other thing I wanted to follow up on is the test data for the license shipments. So I need to test both commerce license and Department of State license. I don’t know - how’s the data in the test - the training environment is like. You only have old data in there or how does it work?

Gene Mesley: For the licenses we have a list of licenses that’s to be used. That’s actually one way to find that out is on the Aestir site if you go in there. If you look for test scripts and then you look for those and then they have list of licenses listed and we’ll also make those same - so that’s - I know that’s digging through a file to try to find out a license. We also plan to keep that - make that available in the FAQ, the frequently asked question section which (unintelligible) doubling up on the CBP site and also we’ll try to make it available on the transition information site so you’ll know which licenses are valid. There’s a handful of BIS and the state departmental licenses. We’ll keep them active.

(Myra): Okay that’s wonderful. When should I or when do you think it’ll be available?

Gene Mesley: The license numbers are available in the system and then the license - what’s the actual license number is already in a few - if you’re on the CBP site, if you search for Aestir and if you look for, search for test scripts then you’ll see that test script. Basically that test script, that’s actually geared for the EDI filers and then you’d look at that shipment in there and then you’ll see the one that asks you to submit a shipment with BIS license and it’ll say use this license number and then the one that says submit a state departmental license will say use these license numbers.

(Myra): Okay and it has ((crossover))?

Gene Mesley: That information available in the website now will just make it a little bit more easier to find it.

(Myra): Okay. The license itself, the exact copy of the license is made available?

Gene Mesley: No. It’s just a fake license.

(Myra): I don’t know what parties are on the license. What’s the ((crossover))?

Gene Mesley: It gives you the license number and then registrar. It’ll say what’s the license type. You should use the what’s the license number and then what’s the registrant number.

(Myra): Okay. It’ll also tell me how to file which party can use and so on? It will have all that information?

Gene Mesley: Yes. The registrant number and then the license number are there. This side we do and then we’ll - we’ll give you the combination that’ll validate it.

(Myra): Okay. Thank you.

Coordinator: (Chris) your line is now open.

(Chris): Hello. I had a couple questions on the - you had mentioned in the last webinar the email response address. It was always using the account address and that’s what was being sent in the transaction. Do you know if that’s fixed or is that coming up soon?

Gene Mesley: The email address for which you’re getting the response?

(Chris): Yes, the one that we had in the action to send the response to.

Gene Mesley: That’s the - whatever email address that you’re putting in on your - on the filing but if you’re doing - when you do the filing on the first shipment tab you can put in an email address. That’s the email address you’ll be getting the email response. By default we populate that and then that’s actually populated by default. It gets populated from your user profile and you already have that option of changing that to any other email address there.

(Chris): Yes. In the Web link filing we’d send one in and it was always sending it to the account address instead of the one that was being sent in the Web filing.

Gene Mesley: Okay. On the Web link you are sending an email address and then that address field isn’t getting populated on the field when you see the filing?

(Chris): Right.

Gene Mesley: Okay. Maybe I missed that last time. I thought you were mentioning about some of that (unintelligible) populating. We’ll definitely look into it and then I’ll see that we can make a correction to that.

(Chris): Okay.

Gene Mesley: Thanks. When you submit it, when you correct it it’ll work but then we’ll see if we can automatically use the value that is sent.

(Chris): Okay very good. I did have a -

Coordinator: (Christina) your line is open.

(Christina): Yes. When would the slides from the last webinar will be available?

Theresa Gordon: They should be available today or tomorrow on the transition site and we’ll also be posting the recording and the transcript when that’s available. Then we’ll send out a broadcast and also include the test licensing information that Gene was referencing as well. We’ll have all of that on the website but the presentation should be up by tomorrow.

(Christina): Okay thank you.

Theresa Gordon: You’re welcome.

Coordinator: (Chris) I did go and hit and re-open your line. I do apologize.

(Chris): Thanks. We had another question on a successful submission. We’re getting an Ajax error after that. Is that something that you guys are aware of?

Gene Mesley: Yes. Actually other user also pointed out. That seems like incorrect although we have some environment -- the test system only -- and we will be - hopefully it’ll be addressed by the end of today.

(Chris): Okay.

Gene Mesley: If you noticed that you could actually also change the URL just to make - type in the URL again and then it should be okay. You’ll get it off the error.

(Chris): Okay. It looks like everything was submitted successfully. It was just getting that error. I did have one other question on the - when we do the Web link submission we sometimes are getting - it looks like it’s blank on the screen once we go to the step 2 of the parties tab. What it looks like it’s actually doing is it’s duplicating the record. If we go into the shipment manager we’d see the first one that we had submitted with all the data in it and then one, it’s a partial that only has the shipment data in it.

Gene Mesley: Yes. That’s a - we’re aware of that issue that’s happening. However we weren’t able to recreate it at this point. We’re suspecting it could be something the way that specific transaction is happening. If you have data reproducing always on your file and then that might give us a clue on maybe what you’re submitting in the data that might be triggering this. It doesn’t - we’re aware that it’s happening but then at least your data that’s submitted, you have a filing and you can have an extra filing. At least I had one other - at least I’m aware of the user that reported that same issue, not sure if it’s you who reported it. If you have a consistent way to reproduce it, if you send it to us then we’ll look into it a little bit more and see if we can fix the issue.

(Chris): I ask AES address or should I use a different one?

Gene Mesley: Actually yes. Theresa if you don’t mind if he sends it to you and then can - you can forward it to me.

Theresa Gordon: Yes no problem.

Gene Mesley: I don’t want to give you too many email addresses. Just send it to Theresa and she can get it to me.

(Chris): Okay.

Theresa Gordon: Or you can also send it to ask AES if my email isn’t -

Gene Mesley: I get most of the email from ask AES also so please use that.

(Chris): I’ll send it to both, thank you guys.

Coordinator: (Scott Fossel) your line is now open.

(Scott Fossel): Yes hello. This is (Scott) with L3 Aviation Group. I’ve got (Judith) here, exports person. We have a couple of questions. One is AES VPN. We’re originally had a program which just monitors a directory that’s given to us by AES and it automatically submits the AES commodity data transaction package up through the portal. Do you have any equivalent to that?

Gene Mesley: We don’t have a program that actually is exactly like that. The CBP provides a VPN client which is actually an EDI client. If you have an EDI file you can use the CBP VPN client to actually connect to the CBP message queues and then submit it. We can - the CBP website has some information about that for submitting EDI data. You can actually use that information to submit through EDI filing.

(Scott Fossel): Do you have an address to that then?

Gene Mesley: It’s -

(Scott Fossel): We’ve found it very difficult to get information about the VPN and what’s happening to it. We don’t want to have someone sitting behind a desk submitting a file.

Gene Mesley: Sure. It’s on the site. Again they share - we will - if you search for a share and then commodity you’ll see a link for the AES and then there’s a getting started link and that actually has a lot of this information.

(Scott Fossel): On the old AES website?

Gene Mesley: No the CBP website. Go to .

(Scott Fossel): . (Unintelligible)?

Gene Mesley: Go to and then search for Aestir and then that takes you to the page where it has all this information.

(Scott Fossel): Okay. And then we have - we’ve been taking our current files that we submit to AES that’s match processing using the AES commodity data transactions format. We’ve been uploading into your test environment and we’ve had some problems. I’m going to let (Judith) talk about that.

(Judith): Okay. We were having the same problem where we were filing using C33 for a 7A99 port commodity and it keeps saying it’s fatal, that the exemption code is missing…

Gene Mesley: Okay.

(Judith): (Unintelligible) it’s there.

Gene Mesley: Again the old system was - some of the fields if it’s missing the old AES system would actually populate certain things and then send it to CBP. In the new system you actually generate an error especially the exemption codes that - the CBP SJS specification has that data and then usually the way you look at it if you find an error code you can actually look at the appendix A.

The appendix A document has that resolution section and then that talks about which field is in error and then if it’s on what data element and then what’s the value that you’re expecting or it’ll say, you know, which appendix has, like, the valid values. Typically that’s where you want to go. So the appendix A I’d say look at appendix A. That tells your resolution and then the - that actually - I believe that leads you in the right path.

(Judith): So you’re saying that we might’ve been using a partial entry in the old system used to finish the population of that and now we have - for some reason it won’t accept what we were previously using. We have to make sure we have the entire entry?

(Scott Fossel): It seems to be a real problem with NLR exemption code.

Gene Mesley: Yes. I think it might be that the old system might be filling in a loss. Based on I think the - one of the appendixes in there that actually says if you use this exemption, this license type code, this is the exemption code that you need to use or this is what you need. This is where you need to program the license number. It’s in that document so if you look into that document it’ll clearly state -

(Scott Fossel): If we look at the raw data record that we’re sending to you we actually have the fields filled out. As we look at the responses that we’re getting back in the email whenever we look at this exemption code it’s missing now. We look in our data record block and the codes are there. We’re also having a problem where on the header file it wasn’t picking up our EIN number properly. It was throwing errors on that by saying no, you need a - what was it? It was another number was in the field that was locked out. I guess what we need to do is send some screen shots to you to help quantify exactly where the problem is.

Gene Mesley: So if you think you’re sending the data and you’re - you can send us what the error you’re getting and we can validate but most likely it happens with the - somebody - with any system interfAES there might be another position, it might be a little off or might be a different format. Or you sending in Excel or a SJR format?

(Scott Fossel): We’re sending in AS commodity data transactions format which is an AD column record (unintelligible) to return line C to limited. It matches up directly with the specifications within that document. We’re currently at proprietary format January 2016.

Gene Mesley: Okay. Like the proprietary format the reason I asked that is that’s very positional. If you’re one position off then the human eye thinks yes, you’re sending it but then it’s one position off that’s where the system is rejecting it. So that’s a possibility. I’d say just to take a hard look at the data and then if you still think it’s - I also want to add the filer ID. The filer ID on that specification is actually whatever you select. If you on the venue backup load that’s the value that we’ll be using as the filer ID.

(Scott Fossel): Okay. Whatever we use in the binary editor so I guess we’ll be sending you some screen shots and you can probably help us in tracking it down.

Gene Mesley: Okay thanks.

(Judith): Okay thank -

Coordinator: Our next question comes from (Tom Saunders). Your line is open.

(Tom Saunders): Hello. I’m having difficulty accessing the training region. I recently was informed that my ID wasn’t set up for training access. I guess that’ll solve my issue. I have instructions on step 4. I didn’t see account name as an option. Does that make sense, that you can have an ID that accesses production but not training?

Gene Mesley: Actually not. If you’re in step 4 on that process that means you’re still in the production system. It appears that your account access isn’t set up properly. Are you able to submit something in production or are you able to get into the system in production?

(Tom Saunders): I think so. If I click on the account I go to the next page. I do see all the filings that my company has submitted so far. From there I paste the URL, the one that ends in AS direct session broker. I paste that into the URL and I get a 404 resource is not available error or I get - if I paste the other one -- the create Web link -- I get a log in. I put in my ID and none of it - it’s sort of a HTML log in and it says account doesn’t exist.

Gene Mesley: I’d have you please double check the URL that you’re typing in and then paste and make sure you didn’t have a - it’s also case sensitive so make sure that you’re typing in the exact case.

(Tom Saunders): Thank you. I have typed that thing into a text document. I’ve looked at it time and time again and it’s all the right - it’s the right case. It’s all lower case. It’s identical.

Gene Mesley: The broker B is uppercase.

(Tom Saunders): I see that. Well how about that? That’s why you are you and I am me I guess. All right well maybe I’ll try that. Thank you.

Gene Mesley: Sure.

Coordinator: (Christian) your line is now open.

(Christian): Yes hello. It’s funny actually. We - just referring to previous speaker we actually ran into that meeting capital in the session brokers as well. But the question is I’m sorry to sound like a broken record. I asked this last week but do you happen to have anymore updates on the (ITN) number recovery API?

Gene Mesley: The Web link status API?

(Christian): Yes the status API. That’s it.

Gene Mesley: Yes. I think we’re shooting to have that I think before the end of this week. So most likely you’ll have it by tomorrow.

(Christian): That’d be great. And then will you send out a correspondence or would we know from it being there?

Gene Mesley: Yes. We’ll send - once it’s available we’ll send out a distribution note in there. I must clarify. It’ll be available only in the test environment. It’s not going to be available in selection end of this week. We’re still doing our testing internally and then you’re all doing your testing and this seems to be working then we’ll promote it to production. We’ll make it available. We’ll make it a determination for the selection date after we have tested successfully.

(Christian): All right, thank you very much.

Gene Mesley: You’re welcome.

Coordinator: (Lucy) your line’s now open.

(Lucy): (Unintelligible). Hello. Hello?

Coordinator: Your line is open.

(Lucy): Thank you. I had a couple questions about the ES direct Window services. Actually I think a couple years ago (unintelligible) provided us - I’m talking from Cardinal Health actually. And census had provided Cardinal Health the ES direct Web service or software or something which when executed created two Windows services. I think it just looks at download and (unintelligible) directory and transmits the files from Cardinal network to the customs NYC (unintelligible). So with this AES transition do we need to do any changes on that or will be still be able to use that software which would automatically look for the files and transmit it across the network?

Gene Mesley: Unfortunately that software will not be supported and you’ll have to either migrate to an EDI filing or use either the backup load or Web link scenario to submit the filing.

(Lucy): Okay. So based on what I heard during this webinar the bulk filing or the other - the Web link you mentioned is just the Web based solution, right?

Gene Mesley: That’s correct.

(Lucy): For automatic transmission of files ES - so Windows service won’t be supported and we have to probably come up with a new solution you mean?

Gene Mesley: Yes that is correct. You could use the EDI submission which will be the closest equivalent of what you have. CBP provides a VPN client which actually can submit the files to the queue and then get the response back but then it’s not exactly the same as what you have.

(Lucy): Okay. A couple more questions. The (unintelligible) that is the EDS submission for the VPN client, right?

Gene Mesley: Yes.

(Lucy): Would it be something that when installed on the server it would block the network that’s - you can’t - the server won’t be able to connect to anything or is it not as intrusive?

Gene Mesley: This specific call - sorry to cut you off but this call is for the link portion of it. I think there’s a VPN client which actually has that same behavior, the similar behavior. If your network doesn’t allow that there are dedicated VPN options, a few different connectivity options in there. I’m not the best person to explain that but I’d say the - from an EDI submission process through the AES, the CBP website and then somebody will be able to walk you through your options.

Theresa Gordon: And they’re available also on the transition website if you go to aes. The top of the page on the left side you’ll see a link for AES transition and the EDI options in previous calls that we had for VPN EDI are available on that site.

(Lucy): Okay thank you.

Theresa Gordon: You’re welcome.

Coordinator: (Martin Faust) your line is now open.

(Martin Faust): Hello. This is (Martin Faust). I do have a couple of questions. I’m testing on the bulk uploader and I know it states in the documentation that the X1 is optional. It keeps coming back with an error on the foreign domestic indicator. Is that something that’s now mandatory, that we have to put the X1 segment in there?

Gene Mesley: I’m not aware of any new changes to that specification. There’s no new changes as part of this (unintelligible) network. I’m not - I don’t know exactly whether it’s generally optional or not but if it is the foreign domestic indicator I think it’s -

Theresa Gordon: It’s a mandatory element.

(Martin Faust): So it’s a mandatory element now so we have to have an X1 on every single submittal. Is that correct?

((Crossover))

(Martin Faust): After (unintelligible) I found that indicator.

Theresa Gordon: I don’t know what you mean by X1 but -

(Martin Faust): Export license segment. I’m sorry if that’s too detailed a question.

Gene Mesley: You’re fine. I don’t recall where that - the export input indicator - the domestic foreign indicator is in the - which segment it is. If it is on the X1 segment which I don’t remember if that’s correct or not because I don’t have specification in front of me but this wasn’t a new change though. That field is - if it’s required it’s required before the migration.

(Martin Faust): The current one that we have now but - I’m sorry. Another quick question, I know this isn’t for this but on the VPN on the file that comes back, is there a record format out there anywhere that lays out the field that’s going to be on that file that comes back? I am correct in assuming on the VPN it’s only a file coming back, not an email?

Gene Mesley: That’s right. A message, MQ message, you get a message back. The response file formats are also documented on the CBP website. I’m assuming you’re sending an (unintelligible) based on the X1. You send an external 601 and then you get a response. Help me out there, the specific format.

Theresa Gordon: The 824 response back and everything is documented in the (unintelligible). You have the customs proprietary that’s in there and also the X12 format input and output.

(Martin Faust): You said 824, 8-2-4. Is that correct?

Theresa Gordon: Right.

(Martin Faust): All right. I’ll search for 824 then because we could never find the format for the (unintelligible).

Theresa Gordon: Go under the (steer) and then there’s commodity and you should have the 601 and 824 in there.

(Martin Faust): Is there a certain filename that it’s going to be when it comes back that you’re going to be looking for or does it have all those specifics in there or is it just the strict layout? Here’s the layout of what it is.

Gene Mesley: The 824 is like a specification and then that - the file format is available on the CBP website.

(Martin Faust): I’ll do a little digging. Just another quick comment, the person that was talking about the EIN numbers that they were having trouble with I know that it’s been tightened down, that you have to take the dash out of there. That’s probably their problem or that’s the problem we were having on the new one where the old one was working with a dash in there. You have to have a dash and you have to have a location of 0-0 on the end. So just a comment in case they’re still listening.

(David Garcia): Hello sir?

(Martin Faust): Yes.

(David Garcia): This is (David Garcia)? You have a pen and paper? Let me give you this URL. Take it to the Aestir commodity and transportation format.

(Martin Faust): Okay.

(David Garcia): It’s . If you drop the last forward slash commodity it’ll take you the aestir and you can actually do a lot of digging from there.

(Martin Faust): Okay. Excellent. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

(David Garcia): Sure, no problem.

Coordinator: (Luis Solis) your line is now open.

(Luis Solis): Yes good afternoon. I’ve been brought in by my client to assist their developer with transitioning to the new AES. They had been using a Web link process where they click on a link and it’d upload everything. And I’ve sort of been following and looking at information on your website and I’m thinking that they may be able to benefit from the bulk upload. I just want to confirm that the aestir file layout is what’s used for the bulk upload.

Gene Mesley: That is correct.

Man: Okay. They have an in-house developer who’s doing - they have been on custom software networking with him. Should I have him register with your site to get a developer access and they can test because I’m going to be doing some development work with him and I’m trying to find out what’s the best option to approach this from a testing standpoint. Should I develop - register myself individually, get some data from them to do testing against your test site and then work with the in-house developer to integrate this into their application or should I do everything through the main developers so that way everything’s tied back to the actual organization that sends data to you?

Gene Mesley: Okay. You not only access the test site. You need to have a production account so if you’re working with somebody who’s already - who is the actual person who’s going to be submitting or the organization that’s submitting then it’s probably easier for them because they already have an account and they can use that account to log into the test system and then some of the files.

Man: Perfect. I’ll work with them to request access to the test system for testing on the new platform and then I think maybe what we’ll do is we’ll look at the new Web link specification and see if we can have the parameters - make a compliant Web link call and they can click on a link after they log on to the AES portal. If they understand that’s a new requirement where the old Web link, you just click on it and it’s submitted without requiring a login to the AES system. Is that correct?

Gene Mesley: Yes. The old system, you have a way to pass the credential and in the new system you have to submit the credentials first then you’ll be able to log into the actual system.

Man: Once they’re logged in, you mentioned that there’s a URL that’s displayed. Should they be grabbing a specific submission URL once they’re logged in so that way once they submit however many documents or transactions that it uses that valid URL?

Gene Mesley: Once they’re logged in and then they’re completed to the system or to the production system, whatever they’re going to submit this data to, they can submit any number of filings as long as they’re logged in.

Man: Okay. So they can use the new URL and it’ll know that from that browser. They can open up another tab in the browser and it’ll have a list of links they can click on. They could go to the bulk filing manager and upload one file that has however many transactions they want to send.

Gene Mesley: That’s correct.

Man: Okay. Great well I think my next step is going to be to get them to get access to the training site and work with their developer and send them some test files and sit down and walk through the process while - right now they’re manually keying in shipments and they’re slow season. It’s going to pick up here pretty soon but thank you very much.

I’ll look forward to - if you guys can include all the URLs and things mentioned in the transcript because I think there’s a lot of good information that’s been discussed and that’d really help me out a lot I know because I’m new to all this process. I appreciate it, thank you.

Theresa Gordon: Thank you.

Coordinator: Our next question comes from (Kathy). Your line’s open.

(Kathy): Hello. I was trying to process shipment yesterday and I got a fatal error of 170 which says my airway bill format was incorrect which I know it was wrong because I’ve never been asked that question before. We processed our orders - our shipments by FedEx and FedEx won’t let me print out a airway bill until I put the ITM number in. I was wondering if there’s a way to get around that like put zeros in the format, the right way airway bill format. How do I work around that?

I left a message and I sent an email. I agree with the other woman. I haven’t heard back from anybody at the help desk. It must be inundated these days.

Theresa Gordon: Which help desk are you emailing?

(Kathy): It was A-S-K A-E-S at and then the - I got an email with the fatal message and it gave you helpdesk and a telephone number to call. I left a message and emailed. Anyway do - everything else was fine. That was my fatal message that I received and I don’t know how to work around because I tried with FedEx to process it but they won’t let me until I - I put the pre-departure and I even tried to work around that but they wouldn’t let me.

Theresa Gordon: You don’t have to put the airway bill in the transportation reference number. You can take it out. It’s only required for vessel shipment.

(Kathy): I don’t have to put an airway bill in at all?

Theresa Gordon: No, not for the transportation reference number. If it’s not a vessel shipment no, you don’t put an airway bill in on the TRN.

(Kathy): Okay. I tried to do that. That’s what I’ll try next time. I could try to do it and it still was asking for that. I deleted - I had the put the purchase order number in just to throw a number in there. It just said shipment reference number. I took that out. That’s all I have to do, just leave it blank.

Theresa Gordon: It’s only for vessel, the transportation reference number and that hasn’t changed.

(Kathy): Okay.

Theresa Gordon: That’s the same in the new system.

(Kathy): I never had to do that before. I’m like what the heck is this? Okay thank you very much.

Theresa Gordon: You’re welcome.

Coordinator: Our last question comes from (Heath). Your line is open.

(Heath): Me one more time. I know we’re doing a bulk AMS and a bulk upload in the Web link upload. Do we have a scheduler? Are we going to be doing the VPN webinar soon?

Theresa Gordon: We did a EDI VPN webinar previously or Q&A and the transcript is available on the transition website. We don’t have any schedule in the near future. We’re sending out a broadcast with instructions for just to make sure everyone’s getting the transition plan in place and filling out the LOI to get into the queue for (unintelligible). We don’t have a webinar.

(Heath): I was on a call here. They said that the requirements for the connection wasn’t detailed yet and then that was coming out soon.

Theresa Gordon: You want to speak to that? You work directly with a client rep to do the VPN or the EDI. I don’t know (unintelligible) is on the line.

Woman: I am. I’m not exactly following what the question was.

(Heath): Basically I need to setup the VPN connection two or three, option 2 or option 3. For me I have to decide which one I want to do which is probably going to be 2 and then I need the information to set it up.

On the last conference call we had I presented this question as well which was like last week. They said they don’t have the standards out yet. I was wondering when it’s coming out, when I’ll have more information to configure and to set it up and when we can start testing. To me -

Woman: Have you sent a letter of intent yet?

(Heath): Yes.

Woman: Okay. Have you been assigned a client rep from customs?

(Heath): Yes. Would it be the same client rep with the bulk upload or is it somebody else?

Woman: No. You’re not assigned a client rep for a bulk upload.

(Heath): Okay we have a client rep then.

Woman: Okay. If you have a client rep you can talk to them and they’ll get you going on that as far as - the specifications for the second and third VPN options is up and - they’re out there on the website.

(Heath): Okay. I can (unintelligible).

Woman: Yes.

Theresa Gordon: They’re there on the transition site if you go to aes and one of the top links on the left says transition AES but there are also transcripts and recordings from the webinar that we did towards the end of the year.

(Heath): Okay.

Woman: All right? Okay.

(Heath): Thank you.

Coordinator: I show no further questions.

Theresa Gordon: Thank you and thank you everyone for calling in today for your questions. We’ll host another webinar Q&A next Thursday at the same time, 2:00 p.m. and call-in information will go out next week. Again we thank everyone and have a great day.

Coordinator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may disconnect at this time.

END

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